Easy Homemade Peanut Brittle Recipe | A Spicy Perspective (2024)

FAQs

How do you make easy peanut brittle? ›

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir sugar and salt with melted butter to dissolve completely. Remove saucepan from heat, add peanuts, and stir to coat completely; immediately pour onto prepared pan and spread into an even layer. Refrigerate until brittle, at least 30 minutes.

The main reason why peanut brittle doesn't get hard and have the crunch we expect is because the sugar was not cooked long enough. The sugar needs to be cooked to what is called the hard crack stage, 300ºF.

Be sure to use a candy thermometer to ensure it reaches 300 degrees F or hard crack stage. What does baking soda do to peanut brittle? Adding a little baking soda aerates the peanut brittle causing it to expand slightly for a crunchy texture that won't break your teeth when you chew it.

Gradually stir in peanuts; continue cooking, stirring frequently, until temperature reaches 300^°F or small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into threads which are hard and brittle.

#1 - Store in an airtight container

It should come as no surprise that storing your peanut brittle in airtight containers is one of the best ways to store peanut brittle. Keeping air out helps maintain your brittle's freshness by minimizing the amount of moisture that might come into contact with your sweet treat.

Why did my peanut brittle turn out chewy? The likely cause is that the sugar mixture didn't reach the proper hard crack stage temperature. Ensuring it reaches 300˚F is key to getting that classic brittle texture.

Before you throw that batch away, try this method to salvage it! I've tried it and it works. Put brittle pieces into a sauce pan. Slowly heat pieces until they turn to a thick, bubbly liquid.

It's what's missing — corn syrup. A common brittle ingredient, Asare said, corn syrup causes brittle to go all gooey, gummy and tooth-clingy as it melts in your mouth, whereas sugar crunches, crumbles and dissolves.

What Makes it Brittle? The sugar will be cooked to 300ºF (149ºC)—hard crack stage; which when set up would be hard like a lollipop. But peanut brittle is delicate and you can easily bite into it—how? The secret is in the baking soda.

You will want the cookie sheet to be non-stick. Use parchment paper, a silicone baking sheet or a greased cookie sheet. Spread the peanut brittle as thin as you can. Immediately add your sea salt.

Why is my peanut brittle bitter? ›

Those other liquid sugars have impurities that will burn at the higher temperature of making caramel, leading to a bitter-tasting brittle.

To store: Once it's completely cooled, store peanut brittle in an airtight container at room temperature. Do not refrigerate as the moisture from the fridge will cause the brittle to soften. Store for 6-8 weeks. To Freeze: Peanut brittle can be frozen and stored up to 3 months.

Why didn't my homemade peanut brittle get hard? Same answer as the question above. If your peanut brittle is not hardening, it's because the sugar mixture did not get hot enough to properly caramelize, cool and become hard, crisp and crunchy.

I've learned that brittle is better when made on a cool, dry day. When I've made the candy on a warmer, humid day, it tends to be a stickier brittle. This is because the brittle takes longer to cool, and it reaches a point where it is no longer evaporating moisture into the air.

However, if you don't have a candy thermometer, it's still possible to make this sweet. All you have to do to find out if your peanut brittle is ready to be removed from the heat is to drop a bit of the syrup into cold water and see if it forms brittle strands. If so, you're ready to finish up your confection.

We decided to experiment with the simplest method first --- putting the peanuts in a cloth bag and rolling over it with a rolling pin. This technique did a good job of cracking the shells (deleting the painful fingers problem), but we still had to pick the peanuts out since they didn't come all the way loose.

Heavy 6 quart Dutch Oven pot. Mine is an old 1970's Club Aluminum. It's perfect! You need a heavy THICK pot so it won't scorch.

Place a piece of parchment paper over the hot brittle and use a rolling pin to roll the peanut brittle into a 3/8-inch thick flat layer.